Johnson Says He Would Not Support National Abortion Ban

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said this week that he would not push for a national ban on abortion, echoing comments made by former President Donald Trump. The speaker made the comments just days after an attempt to oust him led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) failed in the House.

Johnson supported Trump’s position regarding abortion being regulated by individual states. “After the Dobbs decision, I think that’s where it is,” he said.

“ It’s also an important article of faith for me. But I have 434 colleagues here. All of us have our own, philosophical principles that we live by, but you have to have a political consensus,” said Johnson.

The speaker said that there was “work to do to build a culture of life and educate people on the importance of that and to really live up to the principles of our nation’s birth certificate, which is the declaration that ‘All men are created equal.’”

“And there’s value in that. But we have a long way to go to build the political consensus here to do anything in that regard,” he added.

The 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and sent the decision on abortion back to the states.

Despite his recent comments, Johnson emerged as one of the House’s strongest opponents of abortion, including speaking against abortion carried out among babies born alive following a failed abortion.

The former president said earlier this month that each state should make its own decisions regarding the regulation of abortion. “Abortion is now up to the States, where everybody, Republican and Democrat, plus all legal scholars and experts, have wanted it to be,” he wrote. “The people choose, and many States, like Ohio and Kansas, have chosen.”

The former president said that the current abortion situation is “all working, will never go back to the Federal Government and our Country will soon start uniting on this long contentious issue.” He also said that abortion should be restricted in the last trimester and spoke against “execution after birth.”